“The school builds the community and in return, the community helps build the school” - Lára Stefánsdóttir , principal of Menntaskólinn á Tröllaskaga

Menntaskólinn á Tröllaskaga (MTR), is an upper secondary school, located in Ólafsfjörður, a small town with a population of 800 in Northern Iceland. Most of the students are 16-24 years. The school also caters to adult learners.

“Most of the students did not finish school. In a small town, most became sailors or marry one. You can earn $1-2m kronas going out to sea. Why bother with education? Now we are slowly changing that concept and the atmosphere in the community. The school was put here to raise the culture. People realize that they can do more things here now, than they could in the past." - Lára Stefánsdóttir.

When Lára Stefánsdóttir became the principal 6 years ago, one of her goals in setting up the school was to give the young people in the town different options in life. As the principal, Lára sets the tone for the school. She feels it is important that the students are able to path their own career and hopefully, stay and grow their roots in the town. Hence, the school’s motto is Innovation, Creativity and Courage and it’s reflected in what they do.

Lára , the principal, having a weekly meeting with her staff to discuss the curriculum for next semester.

Atli and his early artwork in his father's factory. Atli Tómasson, who was diagnosed with ADHD, is the local Stone Mason’s son. He took 8 years to complete the 3 year upper secondary course as he dropped in and out of school. “Before MTR, I would play video games in class for the whole day and the teacher didn’t care.”

Students from Siglufjörður, the sister town, arriving for school in the morning. MTR is the only upper secondary school in the mountain settlement.

Ólafur Pálmi Guðnason, a software developer, teaches the students mobile app programming during the special week.
Ólafur grew up in Ólafsfjörður and has moved to Akureyri.

In the personal finance class, Inga helps a student understand taxes and what they mean. After the financial crisis in 2008, the school felt that it was important for the students to understand how to manage their own finances. How credit card interest, mortgage, taxes and insurance work is taught to all the students.

Lára is checking on Sigrún, a special needs student, in the middle of a sound and grove class.

Sæbjörg, an assistant teacher, is also a student in the school. She's learning Art.

Students walking back to school after visiting an exhibition at Listhus Artspace.

Elementary school students waiting to go into the scary sound installation done by Mikael, Moise and Páll during the special week of learning.

In a Forensic science class, students were given sheep’s blood and told to simulate actions of a murder. The teacher, Vera Sólveig Ólafsdóttir, came up with the idea and was backed by Lára. “I might not be able to do this in another school.” said Vera.

Waiting for their turn in a scuba diving class.

Menntaskólinn á Tröllaskaga is unorthodox as it does not have final exams. Instead, the students have weekly assessments. The students, are studying Anatomy, working on the digital online test on their laptops.

Students learning Spanish, by playing a board game designed by their teacher, Ida.

Lára with Atli, in her home and reading a story that she wrote.

Lára described him as “the mold on the sofa” when she first met him. She worked with him to try out different classes to find out what he was good at. Now Atli is studying Fine Arts at Inntaka University in Akureyri.

“You don’t realize it but you get a connection to a student. He’s a student long ago but he’s a friend now. “ – Lára

Agnes, the occupational therapist, and her special needs class sharing a joke over the food that they just cooked. Every semester, she will go through the recipe book with her class and together they will decide what they want to cook together.

Ólöf , singing an Adele song, as Lísebet , the sports teacher, plays the karaoke track from her laptop and gives her pointers on her singing. "It's not a singing class. The girls heard me singing and we decided to sing together."

Bergþór, the fine arts teacher, teaching his class via long distance, as he is doing his Masters in Sweden.

It's job attachment day and Margrét Líf Kjartansdóttir , a special needs student, is working at the local child care centre. The school helps to integrate the students into the community by finding job attachments for them. Once a week, on Tuesday, the students go out to work.

Guðrún , the Art Teacher, helping Petur with his artwork. They are exploring what he is on the inside and what he wants to be on the outside.

Moise, a french exchange student, watches as his classmates try their hand at french cuisine. The students are taught cuisines from different cultures every week.

It started snowing in November. In cases of extreme weather when the school is closed, the classes are held via the online learning system. The school has 260 students. Out of 260, 140 are distance learners.

Speaker from the Aurora and Earthquake Centre explaining to the class what they do at the centre. This session was arranged by Þórarinn , who is in charge of career development for the students.

Students from the Sports and Outdoor track class building their endurance by swimming in the Arctic Sea. It was about 7 degrees on the day this picture was taken.